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Tuesday, July 26, 2011

Map Evolution

Mapping is a progressive business for me. I can't sit down, draw a bunch of lines, sprinkle mountains and rivers over it and then draw circles where I want cities to be. Well, I could, but it would be meaningless. I've tried, and have a lot of trouble defining my world after the map is drawn.

My map-drawing goes hand in hand with the worldbuilding. I imagine kingdoms/countries and their relations to one another. I know which are bigger, which are more military, which should have what kind of climate. They aren't drawn, but I have an end goal in mind. I also know my major storyline locations, and have a good idea of where they must be located (one relative to another, at any rate).

Then I sketch. Sketching maps is perhaps the only art-sy thing I can do. It was made even easier with my touchscreen laptop. Now I sketch straight into Paint. (yes, Paint. I don't have nor need anything else)

So, let's have some pictures. I am admittedly proud of my maps.

First sketch!

Everything with a name on there is important plotwise. Once I had that map, I took a closer look at each country. I always have a good idea of what must go in each and how I want the map to unfold, but the actual drawing, to me, is setting in stones these details. It means I have something solid I can reference to in the novel.

I started with Regaria

It was at that point that I realised that for the balance of power to really make sense in the novel, I'd need more than three countries. The plotter in me facepalmed hard, ranted inwardly that I should've done all that before I wrote the latest draft, and I ignored it. No point in beating myself over it.

I went ahead, added two new kingdoms and finished the lines around this continent.

From that point it was mainly a matter of adding the details that were in my notes. Drawing maps to me is part basic geography knowledge (and I really mean basic. I'm not a geography buff at all), part imagination in order to create unique locations, part historical logic. There's a couple of rules and tricks I set for myself when I draw.

11 comments:

What a fun post! Your maps are so incredibly awesome, so it's just fine that you're proud of them! I could never work from scratch, nor could I do it in paint! (I'm a photographer, and am addicted to photoshop!) I start by using the free relief map generator offered by greenfish, but it's just a starting point, and by the time I'm finished it looks completely different. I enjoy the process of making the maps, and I feel like it's an invaluable tool that will help me keep things straight when I'm writing. :)

I've been working on a map lately as well. It doesn't have much detail yet, but I think I've at least got most of the big features roughly where I want them. It's actually a lot more fun than I thought it would be. I just use a pencil and paper though. :)

I've been working on a map too! Admittedly, it sucks at the moment, but the skeleton of it is all I need at the moment.

It seems that you have a lot of insight into geography! That definitely helps a lot. Unfortunately my grade 9 geography class ruined the entire science for me, which is why I've avoided it until now. I will definitely need to do more research into geography to make my own world more real and alive.

Sarah: I tend to forget how much fun I have drawing mountains and forest until I grab a pen and do it. Then I never want it to stop. ;)

GK: Geography was far from my favourite class to, but at some point in my roleplaying career I developped a world with a real geo-geek. I lifted a few basic tricks from him and ignored the more complex stuff!

Claudie, this is SO interesting! I tried to make a map for my fantasy story and it was terrible. I've learned more just from reading this blog and the comments (um, Google Earth? Why didn't I think of that?). Thank you so much for sharing this information. And seeing your map unfold is super cool. Great job!